Author's Notes: Okay, finally I get to read the reviews, and the first question I find is, "Is James dead?" Well, the answer to that is: not at the moment. Don't you hate these vague teasers?

So, yeah, things are really heating up for Meowth and Jessie, aren't they? That's why this next chapter focuses entirely on JAMES. Yep. Don't worry, I've got plans for Meowth and Jessie, and for the epynomous HeartGold (which Meowth seems to have without even knowing he has it, assuming that we can trust a Luxray named Luthor. Who caught that joke there?)

Chapter Three

Have I gone crazy? James thought as he searched the clearing. There didn't seem to be a single Celebi left for miles around, yet they certainly hadn't time-traveled; James would have noticed the blue energy waves caused by the journey. So how exactly could a million Celebi hide in a forest and never be found?

Yamask seemed equally confused, but it didn't appear to be bothered about it. In fact, it was acting like it wanted James to think it didn't care at all, but James had the feeling it DID care. After all, if they didn't get SOME sort of help in this forest, then how would they survive?

James glanced around, then ducked behind a tree, yanking Yamask along with him. It was kind of stupid, trying to hide from a crowd of Pokemon he couldn't see, but he certainly didn't have any better ideas at the moment (or ever). "All right, Yamask," he whispered. "The only easy way out of here is by using Celebi's time-travel. Which means you and I are going to catch a Celebi. Got it?"

Yamask looked skeptical.

"Yes, I know there's about a million gazillions out there, but we only need to CATCH one. This just improves our odds."

Yamask still wasn't buying it.

James sighed. "Look, all you have to do is wear it down a bit, and then I'll throw the Poke-Ball, and we'll have a Celebi of our very own. You'll have a new sibling! Won't that be nice?"

Yamask gave James an impossibly sarcastic look, then started rummaging around in James' pockets, looking for food.

James felt like an idiot. Of COURSE Yamask would disapprove; considering the circumstances of Yamask's capture, it probably could barely believe that James could even stood to Jessie's level. (Jessie had wanted to capture Yamask by battling her Woobat against it, but James had intervened.) "Or, yeah, we COULD just set some food out and see if one shows – HEY STOPPIT! That's not food, that's my bottle cap collection!"

...a bottle cap collection that was quickly dissappearing down Yamask's gullet. Lovely. I knew I never should've brought my entire collection to Unova with me.

Assuming this is still Unova.

The question paralyzed James' mental processes as if a Raichu had blasted him to the noggin. Was this still Unova? Was it Unova in the past, or the future? Was it another dimension entirely? Or had he finally snapped from ThunderShock overexposure?

At any rate, he was of no mind to notice the lone Celebi sneaking up behind him until Yamask yelped a far-too-late warning as James got entangled in more vines than he could have counted even if he'd seen them coming, which he hadn't.

James found himself looking eye to upside-down eye with an oddly familiar-looking Celebi. It took a while for him to figure out that the Celebi was not, in fact, upside-down; rather, HE was. He was dangling from a Silcoon-like entanglement of vines, which showed him how a Tangela must feel but otherwise didn't help him in the slightest for that moment.

"HEY!" yelled James. "What did I ever do to YOU?"

Celebi gave him a glare that seemed to say, What indeed? Oh, that's right; you've probably done so many nasty things to Pokemon that you can't even remember me if you try to.

And then, James did remember.

Oh, snap.

The Iron-Masked Marauder.

The Dark Balls.

THAT Celebi.

Yamask immediately started jabbering at the Celebi – "Yah! Yah! YAMASK!" – and motioning towards its trainer, but James didn't care. I knew this would come back to haunt me, he thought in despair. Just my rotten luck. I've had nothing but rotten luck since the first time I saw that horrible Jessiebelle woman and started this whole thing. On the bright side, Celebi can't do anything worse to me than Jessiebelle would have. If that even IS a bright side.

Jessiebelle had been the reason why James had run away from home in the first place. While James had originally fallen head-over-heels for her, she'd soon proved to be a shrewish, commanding woman who didn't give a pair of Growlithe's kidneys about her potential beau's feelings. James' parents, however, were determined to marry him off to her, which was why he'd escaped while he could, leaving his enormous fortune behind (but bringing his bottle cap collection, of course). He'd eventually met Jessie, whose mother had been a top agent of Team Rocket and who was determined to follow in said mother's footsteps, and the rest was history. Oddly enough, Jessie bore more than a passable resemblance to Jessiebelle, which may have explained why James at once both cared deeply about her and was scared like heck of her. Life was weird.

And life didn't get much weirder than hanging upside-down from a makeshift sack of vines and listening to two Pokemon in a heated discussion, presumably regarding his fate. Yamask, James guessed, was telling Celebi that James wasn't really all that bad, and Celebi was obviously telling Yamask that, actually, yes, James WAS that bad. And the worst part was, James knew that in all honesty, he'd have to side with Celebi.

Not that he was about to. "Um, guys?" he said, managing to move his chin loose enough from the vines to speak out of his mouth. "Look, I'd just like to say a few-"

Celebi gave James a look that said... nothing.

"A few words, okay? Sorry to interrupt; not that I know what you're saying, but please... hear me out, all right? I'm... SORRY, okay?"

Celebi's look softened, but was still unreadable. Yamask, however, was completely befuddled, and gave a chirp that sounded a little like, "Why?"

"I'm sorry... look, if I'd know how that mission was going to turn out-" Oh, what was he saying? Of COURSE he'd known how the mission would turn out: just as badly as all the others up to that point. What he couldn't have imagined was that the Celebi would suffer the worst out of the deal, since usually their intended victims escaped relatively unharmed, but in Celebi's case, things hadn't exactly worked out that way. Well, actually, they had in the end, but it was what happened just before the end that was so terrible.

"What I mean to say is..." Without realizing it, James broke into a cold sweat. What was he thinking? He couldn't explain away his actions to THIS Celebi, not when its husky exterior still bore scars from its literal withering away from the effects of the Marauder's Dark Ball. James had watched everything from what he had believed was a safe distance, and he'd seen the Ketchum twerp holding Celebi's body, desperately trying to heal it in the Lake of Life. There was only one explanation to why the Lake of Life hadn't replenished the Grass-type's life force: Celebi had no longer had any life force to replenish.

We KILLED it.

James still didn't fully understand how Celebi had come back to life; his memory was a bit fuzzy on that point, and what he could remember didn't make any sense; just some spiritual chanting to music that he wasn't even sure had a tune, and what had looked like a whole bunch of Celebi floating around.

Strange music, and Celebi en masse. Oddly similar to what he'd seen just now, before... but never mind that. He had more pressing matters on his mind, such as how the heck he was going to get out of this mess of vines unharmed, if at all possible.

And then he realized that, while he was still in midair, he was no longer touching any vines at all!

Celebi and Yamask had a bit of a giggle as James floundered around in midair, expecting at any moment to come crashing down to earth again. James was actually held quite securely in Celebi's telekinetic grip, the result of a Psychic-type battle move that was oddly called Confusion, maybe because that was what in invariably caused to those who tried to explain how it worked. "I'm free?" he asked, as confused as a Psyduck with a double migraine. "Yaaah! Put me down! Put me down! I surrender!" (There was really no need to surrender at that moment, but James was so much in a jumble, he could barely even remember which way was up.) "I'll do anything you want, just put me DOWN-!"

Celebi set him down right-side up, fortunately. Then it looked him deep in the eyes. Yamask, still not sure of what was happening, immediately checked James for wounds. James himself could only stare at the Celebi, who seemed to be studying him intently, trying to figure out if there was any truth to his words.

And then, when James was paying more attention to Celebi and no attention to Yamask, Yamask suddenly put its mask over James' face.

James instinctively recoiled in horror – that mask felt terrible! It felt like it had been carved out of solid bone, and it was cold as granite on his face. AND it smelled something awful – like rotting leaves and dead flesh, which was not a pleasant combination to have smack in your face without warning. So no one could honestly blame James for screaming his lungs out.

Quiet down! came a voice inside James' head. The voice seemed oddly familiar. I'm not going to hurt you!

It took a short moment for James to quiet down, and another short moment for him to realize that he hadn't WANTED to quiet down, that it had been just as involuntary as his original scream, but instead of sprouting from his base instincts, it had sprouted from the command of the voice, which was gently impressing itself on James' psyche.

That was when James realized that the voice was of his Yamask.

It's about time, thought Yamask toward James. About time that we can actually talk to each other, I mean. Celebi has... said things about you, things I'd rather not believe. But a Psychic-type knows things like that about people and Pokemon. I should know. I've been both.

James was about to ask what Yamask meant, but then he remembered. Of course! He'd already known that Yamasks arose from the spirits of deceased humans buried in certain parts of Unova, which was kind of creepy once he thought about it. The thought of someday becoming a Pokemon himself was less than reassuring, all things considered.

Hey, that's getting personal! Yamask said grumpily. I have feelings, you know.

Great. Now he'd insulted his own Pokemon without even meaning to. Not a great sign of being able to work things out with Celebi.

You're right, said Yamask. You should speak with Celebi now. She's the one who asked me to put my mask on you so we could communicate, after all.

So now he knew that Celebi was a she, and that she was willing to talk to him. James wondered if Celebi had ever had a slab of what seemed like rotting meat on her face.

That's not rotting meat causing the smell, that's ectoplasm, Celebi "said" to James, speaking into his mind through the mask. How vulgar, the thought! Considering where that mask has been and all...

She shook herself. Never mind. Now, 'James', please come with me if you want to live.

Not the most heartening words James had heard all day.

"What the heck are you TALKING ABOUT?"

Just follow.

"Follow what? I can't see a thing!"

Trust Yamask to guide you.

James wanted to just yank Yamask's mask clear off his face, and he knew he could probably do it, too – Yamask wasn't impressing itself with a full possession, just a gentle guidance – but what could he have done then, lost in the middle of an endless forest against a Legendary that, he knew from personal experience, could level said forest?

And besides, James certainly DID want to live. Badly.

He sighed a little too loudly. "All right, all right, little lady. I'm coming."